Goaltending legend praises Smith

16 December 2024

When one of the greatest goalies in history talks up your performance, you know you’re doing something right. Dragons star Jeremy Smith caught the eye of Vladislav Tretiak during the Channel 1 Cup – and the legendary netminder of the 1972 Summit Series liked what he saw.

“In the first period [Russia] dominated and only the goalie, Smith, kept the World Team in the game,” Tretiak, who is now president of the Russian Hockey Federation said. “As a goalie myself, I didn’t envy him in that first period.”

Smitty was playing for the KHL World Team, a new project that brought together the league’s imports on a single roster to take part in the traditional Channel 1 Cup. Our goalie was joined by Slovenian forward Jan Drozg and KRS head coach Mikhail Kravets from the current Red Star roster. In addition, former Dragons’ head coach Mike Keenan took charge of the team, which also included defenseman Ryan Merkley and forward Jack Rodewald, both recent members of our team.

Smith played two periods of the World Team’s opening game against Russia 25. He suffered a slight injury in the second frame and made way for Patrik Rybar. Happily, there was no serious problem and Smitty was dressed again to understudy Hunter Miska in Sunday’s concluding game against Belarus. Drozg played in the 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan and kept his place for the defeat to the Belarusians. Rodewald got the World Team’s goal in that Belarus game.

New role for head coach Kravets

Kravets, meanwhile, took on a new job – coaching the 3×3 roster. It’s touted as a new hockey format, promising faster action and more excitement for young audiences. Inspired by the success of similar ‘mini’ formats in other sports – beach volleyball, 3×3 basketball, rugby 7s or Twenty20 cricket – there are hopes that it will be an Olympic discipline in 2030.

As part of the Channel 1 Cup, the four teams played an exhibition 3×3 tournament, with our head coach taking charge of the World Team for the event. He immediately found himself undone by another KRS man involved at the tournament – our on-loan forward Stepan Zvyagin was among the scorers for Belarus in a semi-final loss.

However, Kravets was happy to substitute a practice session for competitive action – and recalled that, despite the hype, 3×3 was a thing back in his playing days as well.

“We planned a training session, but instead we played some interesting games,” he said. “Games are always more fun than practice. In 3×3, as in regular hockey, you need skill, an understanding of the game, speed and the strength to win physical battles, even without full checking. In this game you can’t set up tactics like pressing or counterattacking, so you need to work with the puck, choose the right time to open up and play man-to-man in your zone.

“Back in my playing days we also had 3×3. But back then, it was part of the training process rather than something for a tournament. Sometimes we played it on the full ice, sometimes we’d play cross-ice in one zone. Those sessions helped sharpen our skills, read the game better and improve our shooting.”

The 3×3 format could be here to stay – starting Thursday, eight KHL teams are participating in the league’s first ever 3×3 championship.

New arrival

On Sunday, KRS confirmed the signing of forward Alexander Sharov from Traktor. The 29-year-old Chelyabinsk native spent most of his career with his hometown team, but had a spell with Amur from 2021-23. The center has played 10 seasons in the KHL, with 95 points from 473 regular season games. He’s been in the playoffs four times,socring 11 (6+5) points in 39 post-season appearances. Alexander also had a couple of international call-ups, representing Russia II in 2017/18 and 2018/19.